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Here we see two children walking to school, we think in the early-1940s. The car helps date the image. The knickers suggest the 1930s, but the car indicates it was the very early 1940s. The children look rather well dressed for school. A reader writes, "With the outfits, I think the children are walking to a private school. What they are wearing seems to be school uniforms or school dress code." We the boy's outfit does suggest a pprivate school, especially the peaked cap and kneesocks witth the colored bands at the top. I think that by the late-30s, short and lng pants were replaceing knickers at private schools, but this needs to be confirmed. The book straps also don't seem right for a private school. I'm not sure quite what to make of the image. You may be right, but I have a little difficult to see private school children walking to school along a busy highway. Also in the 1930s, most were single gender. And the girl's outfit seems to us more a stylish outfit than a school uniform. We think this may be a staged commercial photograph rather than a candid shot. In particular at this age it would be unusual to see boys and girls walking to school holding hands.
Here we see two children walking to school, we think in the early-1940s. The car helps date the image. The knickers suggest the 1930s, but the car indicates it was the very early-1940s. A reader tells us, "
The car here is a 1941 Buick. The '41 Buick sold very well that year, and it's still a beautiful car (I think) almost 70 years later. It is something of a classic in style. You can spot them sometimes in the
films from this period." As the car looks brand new and this looks raher like an automobile advertisement, we think we can fairly confidently say that the image ws taken in late- 1940 (American car models usually came out late in the preceeding year) or early 1941. Knickers had not disappeared in the early-40s, but they were rapidly going out of style.
Our reader is quite right. Cars and other consumer products were selling well in 1940 and '41 for the first time since the Great Depression. The reason was because of War orders, Americans were gong back to work and had money to spend. Amerian compaies were still churning our cars like this and other consumer products like washing machines and refrigerators. Look at al the steel and chrome on that car. While the future of the world was being determined in Europe. While this photograph was taken, France had been conquered, the Blitz was rageing over London, and Hitler was preparing the invasion of the Soviet Union. American corporations were making so much money, that even after Pearl Harbor, many resisted conversion from consumer products to war production as the Government moved to make President Roosevelt's vision of the Arsenal of Democracy into a reality. A reader writes, "You're right, Dunkerque, +the Fall of France, the Battle of Britain, the Afrika Korps entering North Africa, and the NAZI invasion of the Soviet Union, and finally Pearl Harbor, major milestones of World War II, had all passed when America's last 1942 model cars rolled off the assembly lines (January 31, 1942).
The children look rather well dressed for school. A reader writes, "With the outfits, I think the children are walking to a private school. What they are wearing seems to be school uniforms or school dress code." We the boy's outfit does suggest a private school, especially the peaked cap and kneesocks witth the colored bands at the top. I think that by the late-30s, short and lng pants were replaceing knickers at private schools, but this needs to be confirmed. Not only were knickers on the way out, boys did not commonly wear them with black socks. These are not, however,the once common black long stockings, but black knee socks. And he colored bands at the top tell us that they were school uniform kneesocks. The book straps also don't seem right for a private school.
I'm not sure quite what to make of the image. You may be right, but I have a little difficult to see private school children walking to school along a busy highway. Also in the 1930s, most were single gender. And the girl's outfit seems to us more a stylish outfit than a school uniform. We think this may be a staged commercial photograph rather than a candid shot. In particular at this age it would be unusual to see boys and girls walking to school holding hands. Perhaps it was taken for an autmobile advertisement. Notice the focus is on the car. The children have their backs to the camera. At the time, car ads often had smartly dressed people. In this case obviously well-to-do children helped to create a quality image for the car.
A reader writes, "Yes, what you write is true. It does look like a saged image. However, the clothes do appear to be those worn by private school children. I know that in Concord, Massachusetts there existed several single-gender schools for both lower and upper grades (kindergarten through high school). All of those schools were in walking distance to each other, but none were by a busy highway in the 1930s. So you have made a good point. Maybe it was a posed picture of some sort." We know knickers were worn at schools in the 1930s. This included both public and private schools. An example of a privae school is Western Reseve Academy in Ohio. Here knickers were not required, but many boys wore them. We do noy know of a private school where a knickers uniform was required in the 1940s.
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